Overseas visitors made a record 5.9 million short-term trips to Australia in 2010, according to the latest figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). This is up from 5.6 million movements recorded during both 2008 and 2009 when short-term visitor arrivals remained steady.

Short-term visitor arrivalsto Australia continued to grow over the 12 months to December 2010.

New Zealand is the top source country of short-term overseas visitors coming to Australia, accounting for one in every five visitors. Making up the remainder of the top five source countries are the UK, the USA, China and Japan. These top five countries accounted for over half of all short-term visitor arrivals to Australia in 2010.

The peak age group for all short-term visitors in 2010 was 25-29 years, irrespective of their gender. However, more males than females arrived for a short-term stay in Australia.

Just under half (46%) of all short-term visitors in 2010 reported holiday as their main reason for journey to Australia. This was followed by visiting friends and relatives (24%), business (11%), education (6%), employment and convention or conference (3% each).

New South Wales was the intended state of stay for 38% of all short-term visitors to Australia in 2010. The other state and territory shares were Queensland with 25%, Victoria with 21%, Western Australia with 10%, South Australia with 3%, and Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory with 1% each.

Further information on both short-term visitor arrivals and short-term resident departures is available in Overseas Arrivals and Departures, December 2010 (cat. no. 3401.0).

Media note:
1. When reporting ABS data the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or ABS) must be attributed as the source.
2. Figures in this media release are based on original series.

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